Lee Van Cleef stars as a retirement age ninja in this awful television series, which I somehow managed to overlook back in the big eighties. It lasted a mere thirteen episodes, but Trans World Entertainment figured they could milk a few bucks out of The Master's still warm corpse by releasing them on VHS. The fifth episode was helpfully retitled Master Ninja 4 for the home video market, and was paired up on the tape with episode 8, The Good, the Bad, and the Priceless. The first episode is really dreadful and features a bunch of baddies running around Las Vegas, terrorizing show girls whilst trying to pull off a casino heist. The second isn't much better, but benefits from guest appearances by George Maharis and Kathleen Kinmont's cleavage. Both episodes climax with slugfests featuring Van Cleef in full on ninja gear, flying through the air and executing some amazing stunts. Far be it for me to suggest that's a stunt double beneath the mask, but Lee sure looks far more agile in his mask than out of it.
Review of High Rollers
